Today’s Thoughts: In Matthew Jesus uses the wonderful example of salt and light in asking the disciples, in asking us to reflect on our lives. I have often preached on this Gospel using the image not of the Sermon on the Mount but of Jesus talking with his disciples one evening as they rested at an inn. They have traveled with him and Jerusalem in not far away and Jesus isn’t sure that they are ready for what is ahead, he isn’t sure their answer is “yes.” How can he help them trust in their relationship?
Then an idea comes to mind. He calls them together. Before he speaks he looks at each one of them and then says, “You are the salt of the earth! But what if salt loses it flavor? What is then good for?” Then he looks at each of them intently again and says. “You are the light of the world! People don’t put a lamp under a bushel basket, they put it on a stand so that it gives light to the whole room. In the same way your light must shine, your flavor must be tasted!” Now I know I am being a bit free and easy with Jesus’ words but the point is that in order for us to say “yes” to God we need to trust in the gifts and talents God has given us. We need to realize that we have something to offer no matter how ordinary our gifts, abilities and talents seem. Salt and light were everyday staples of life, yet as Jesus tells us they were also very valuable and so are we. However, it is up to us. We can hide our light, we can lose our flavor or we can give light to the whole room and add flavor to life! Perhaps the first place to start is to begin our day asking God to let his face shine upon us so that our flavor isn’t lost and our light shines! Have a great Tuesday everyone!
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Today’s Thoughts: I have a couple of thoughts about the Gospel today (Matthew 5: 1-12). The Beatitudes are one of my favorite Gospels but also one of the most challenging Gospels for me. Often after hearing it proclaimed I am energized yet also humbled. I am ready to encounter the world yet I am also ready to head to the confessional. I want to be a true disciple yet I know I am far from it!
Fr. James Martin, S.J. writes “What does it mean to be poor in spirit?” I must admit I have always struggle with an understanding of this first beatitude. Fr. Martin’s answer, “Poor in Spirit is to know one’s reliance on God, to understand one’s dependence on God and to grasp one’s humanity.” I guess we might say that to be “poor in spirit” is to let go and let God. The other challenge of the beatitudes is that to live fully any one of the beatitudes, you will almost automatically begin to live them all. Perhaps to put it another way, “You can’t live just one!” In order to be a peacemaker, we need to also be meek, merciful, clean of heart, righteous and poor in spirit. In order to be merciful, we need to be clean of heart, meek, poor in spirit, righteous and a peacemaker. They go hand in hand. However, living the beatitudes is not easy because they will make us vulnerable to insult, persecution and the evils of our world. They will open us up to the insecurities of the world which can be troubling, harsh, insensitive and hurtful. In other words, living the beatitudes can open us up to be stepped on, hurt and not valued as a person. Living the beatitudes almost always put us in tension with the ways of culture, society and the world. Yet, in the midst of all this Jesus tells us to rejoice and be glad. The challenge of the beatitudes has been going on since the beginning of time. Women and men before us have faced the challenge and their prize, the Kingdom, await us. Perhaps all the beatitudes can really be proclaimed and lived in the phrase, “Let go and let God!” Have a great Monday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: A few years ago, I read a book entitled Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith by Barbara Brown Taylor. She is one of my favorite authors, I love the way she writes and how she tells a story. In one of the chapters Barbara tells a little anecdote about life as pastor/rector of her first parish in northern Georgia. After services one Trinity Sunday she found a miniature Three Musketeer Bar and a note on her car. They were from an eccentric woman who lived across the street from the church. The note read, “One for all and all for one, Happy Trinity Sunday.”
I could not help but laugh as I read the story and the story has stuck with me over the years and I keep coming back to it. Taylor writes the story as she is talking about settling into her first parish as a pastor/rector. It wasn’t easy, there were challenges and struggles, but this story seemed to reflect an acceptance, a fitting in for her. Perhaps that is what this feast of the Holy Trinity is all about. We celebrate the mystery of God as Trinity, three persons but one God. Just saying it seems odd. How can we have three persons but just one God? How can we talk about three individuals yet still only be talking about one God? In human language, it is impossible yet that is what we believe. We celebrate the gift of three persons so connect, so intimate, so focused that they are one. Believing means that we are part of that one, members of the relationship, accepted. We believe in, we celebrate our God today who is all for one and one for all. Happy Trinity Sunday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Sorry that I am a little late with my reflections today. Just one of those days when I am moving a little slower than usual…
In our Gospel, today Jesus challenges us with a condition for evaluating our accomplishments. As you listen to the words of Jesus, note his observation of today’s Gospel scene. Jesus speaks to the procession of people in line to contribute to the temple treasury. He singles out a poor widow. What does he say about her? “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.” Jesus’ point is that the significance of the contributions is based not on the amount, how much is given, but on the quality of heart inspiring the contribution. In other words, for Jesus, it is the love and the self-sacrifice that makes all the difference. It is the willingness to let go and trust in God brings great value to the simple offering of the poor widow. She has everything to lose, the others don’t and that is what makes all the difference. Perhaps today, we Catholics, we Christians need to ask ourselves, are we willing to let go and let God? Do we base achievements and success on how much or on what sacrifice is made for the good of others and God? Do we give from our heart or from our disposable income? In other words, whose Kingdom do our daily activities serve? Do they serve God’s kingdom or our own? Have a great Saturday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Sometimes when we encounter the daily scriptures they create different emotional responses. Take today’s two readings one from the Book of Tobit and the other from the Gospel of Mark they present us with two different situations that might just product two different emotions within us. In the passage from the Book of Tobit we encounter a charming little story while in the Gospel of Mark we are presented with a perplexing little riddle that is part of Jesus’ ongoing tension with the religious leaders of his time – we might say our scriptures today present us with a feel-good story and one of ongoing conflict.
In the selection from Tobit we are reminded of the basic virtues of loyalty and kindliness, a way of living life that is open to everyone. Anyone with an honest attitude and a compassion for others cannot help but tear up at least a little as we hear about the reunion between Tobiah and his parents. It is the story of a good heart, common-sense and the kindly love of others. It is a story about family, friends and the role they play in guiding us through life. It is a story that teaches us about community and about being Church. As I said above it is a feel-good story, the kind of story we need to encounter every once in a while, so that hope remains alive. It is not a fairy tale, a happily ever after story. It is a story of everyday life, a story of coming home, of reconnecting and of the power of love. Too often in our life we are confronted with scenes of conflict like the ones that precede our Gospel today. Our Gospel, continues the back and forth between Jesus and he religious leadership of his time. Today, Jesus challenges them with a little riddle about David and the people listening are delighted with Jesus’ mastery over those who are in charge. Throughout this exchange that takes place in Chapter Twelve of Mark, Jesus seem to constantly reinforce the fundamental qualities of life like compassion, love, forgiveness, generosity and prayer. Jesus refuses to get caught up in “when,” “where,” or “how,” Jesus is concerned about the now! It is the act of living in the now that is most important. Tobit and Anna had hope in the future but their lives of patience and love were firmly grounded in the present and in the end, they found new sight and life-giving love. Let’s not look too far ahead. Let’s not make thing too complicated. Let’s be watchful, loving, compassionate, forgiving, generous and prayerful so that we don’t miss those wonderful moments of God’s presence that come to our doorstep! Have a great Friday everyone! A Request from Pope Francis: Sorry that I am late with this...
Pope Francis launched an appeal for prayer and international participation in the “One Minute for Peace” initiative to be held on Thursday, June 8, 2017, at 1:00 pm Rome-time (7:00 am EST) Well it is passed 7:00 am Eastern Time but it is still a great opportunity to pause and pray for peace for a minute sometime today! Let us all join Pope Francis in praying for peace today and everyday. Today’s Thoughts: I have always liked the story that we find in today’s Gospel (Mark 12: 28-34). I especially like the end when Jesus looks at the scribe and says, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” It is perhaps the only moment in the Gospels when Jesus and the scribes are on the same page. There is a mutual understanding, a mutual respect at this moment in the struggle between Jesus and the religious leaders of his time. It is a nice thing to see. Would that this kind of understand and respect would happen between leaders of all kinds during our time.
The respect and understanding centers around the two great commandments, love of God and love of neighbor and we might say there is a third, love of self, because Jesus says we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. As Jesus teaches and the scribe comes to understand, these are the two or three great commandments and everything else flows from them, which might explain why we find ourselves in the struggles that we are in today. If we just look around at our world, our culture, our society, our church the problems that we find relate to the way we live out or perhaps better said, don’t live out these commandments. Our struggles can be directly related to how we don’t value God and perhaps more importantly how we don’t value others or ourselves. We might even say that our struggles as a culture, society, church and a world can be traced to the lack of love that we have for ourselves. If we don’t love ourselves how can we love others, how can we love God? Love is not just wanting the best for ourselves, others and God. Love is a respect, a reverence for life, for who we are as individuals, as a culture, as a society, as a church, as a world. Love is finding the good in ourselves, others and God. Love is seeing God in others and in ourselves. Love is seeing, acknowledging, and accepting the differences in ourselves and others but most importantly still being able to find God. Our challenge today and every day is to put into practice these three great commandments. Our challenge is to wake up each day in love with God, our neighbor and ourselves! Have a great Thursday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: In today's Gospel reading, Mark considers the problem of life after death and its implications. Jesus takes the side of the Pharisees, believing in resurrection from the dead, as opposed to the view of the Sadducees. This is one of the reasons why Jesus frustrated the Pharisees so much: although he seemed to be one of them according to this criterion, he refused to interpret Scripture as literally as they did or to put as much importance on a strict and literal interpretation of the Law. He goes beyond (not against) what many Old Testament texts seem to assume concerning both life after death.
The wider question which Jesus is addressing here is how we are to interpret Scripture. A literal interpretation is easy for us to understand and so to follow, at least insofar as our having confidence in doing the right thing is concerned. Anyone who is actually willing to come to grips with Scripture, however, soon recognizes that this approach has its problems. The interpretation of the Scriptures is best left to the scholars, what is important for us is how we as individuals read Scripture and draw sustenance from God through it. What I am referring to here is prayer. If we are to have a living friendship with God we need to be in conversation with him. Scripture, as the Word of God, plays an important role here but cannot be taken literally or assumed to have only one "message" in a given passage. Prayer is a place where we listen to what God says through a particular passage of scripture. The Spirit will lead us to pay attention to one aspect of that reading, to a word or expression, or will inspire us with a new understanding of ourselves and who we are. What is most important here for us is first that we actually pray, regularly, with or without using the Scripture, and then that we reflect on what we are doing and what we experience in prayer. And then go on to live in the strength of that Word. Mark’s Gospel today ends with the great affirmation that God is the God of the living and we encounter this living God first and foremost through prayer. God is not just waiting for us to just survive life, God is actively nudging us in the midst of prayer and other ways to give life to his kingdom each and every day. Have a great Wednesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: In our Gospel today, Jesus finds himself once again challenged, harassed, or questioned by the religious leadership. The Pharisees and Herodians seem to be at least civil this time, yet they are still trying to entrap Jesus. Their tactic this time is to ask about paying taxes.
In recent years there has been a lot of talk about religious freedom, about the government infringing on the rights of churches, religions. Perhaps our Gospel story today can be cast in the light of religious freedom after all Rome was asking for tax money so that they could continue their conquering ways. Just think of all the barbaric acts that these taxes would be paying for. Just think of the Roman occupation that these taxes would be helping to fund. It would seem only right for Jesus to say that withholding the Roman tax would be the right thing to do. However, Jesus simply says, “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” In other words, culture and society are not always going to line up with our faith values yet we are still part of culture and society. We will need to give what they require but we will also need to live out our faith, our relationship with God. At times these two relationships are in tension even conflict and we have to make a choice. The choice is not always easy and often has consequences. The challenge is that we live in the world but we are friends of God. Have a great Tuesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: I think we have all had one of those moments when listening to a reading from Scripture we think, “O my God that is directed at me!” There is something in the message, the story that hits home that makes us pause and think about our faith, our relationship with God, our life.
I get the sense that today’s Gospel story (Mark 12: 1-12) was one of those moments for the religious leadership of Jesus’ day. Jesus’ story was directed right at them and they knew it. However rather than taking it to heart, rather than giving it some thought, rather than discerning how to change their lives they chose to consider ways of getting rid of Jesus. The uncomfortableness of the truth did not set them free it just made them blinder to the presence of God in their life. There is a quote that I have always liked and you might have seen it on my Facebook page or in one of my tweets. The quote goes something like this, “Someone described a biblical prophet as one who comforted the disturbed and disturbed the comfortable.” That was certainly true of Jesus especially in our story today. Yet our reaction to today’s Gospel might be to sit back and relax think that Jesus is speaking to leadership and not to us and that would be a mistake. Jesus’ words should also make us uncomfortable today. How often has God sent people into our lives with a message, with the presence of God and we have rejected them. Thinking they don’t fit in, thinking they don’t have the truth, thinking they don’t belong? The point is that we never know when God will come a calling, sending a servant, a son, to collect the fruits of our labor. Will we recognize that it is God and embrace his presence or will we reject the visitor because we think we know best? Have a great Monday 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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