Today’s Thoughts: I have a couple of thoughts about our readings today. First off, I think we have all been where Jesus seems to be today. It might take place within family, friends, the place where we work, the neighborhood or our faith community, but we have been in those situations when we look at people and their struggles and our “hearts go out to them!” We see them overwhelmed by life and we wonder how they will survive, how they will make it. At times, we even feel helpless because the struggle, the problem, the issue just seems so overwhelming.
In the midst of Jesus’ ministry, even though he is healing everyone in sight he looks around and it is overwhelming. He sees the struggles of life, of health, of emotions, of faith and he wonders how are these people are going to make it. His heart goes out to them! However, Jesus also sees a great harvest. He sees possibilities; he sees gifts, talents, abilities. He sees hope and a future but he knows people cannot do it alone the whole community must work at it. Sometimes we think this passage just refers to vocations. If we just get enough priests everything will be fine. Vocations are only a piece of the challenge that Jesus presents to us today. The challenge is for the whole community to be involved. The whole community needs to work together to bring in the harvest, not just a so called chosen few. If the community does not work together the harvest is lost. The harvest of faith, hope and love is the responsibility of the community. We are on the journey together and we all have something to add, to give so that the full rich harvest of God’s presence can be realized and made present. Have a great Tuesday everyone!
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Today’s Thoughts: Two thoughts come to mind this morning concerning our readings today. The first is that I think all of us have been in Jacob’s (Gen. 28:10-22a) sandals at one time or another. Jacob is on a journey, he is in search of a wife. He stops for the evening to rest and encounters a special place. He encounters a place of connection with God that enables him to know of God’s presence and action in his life. He encounters a bridge with God between heaven and earth.
We have all been to or in a place that after some time there we feel very connected to God. It is a place where we sense something special. It might be a favorite spot at the beach or a setting amid the mountains. It might be our favorite church or chapel. It might be a room in building or even our own home. It might be some breath-taking view that we have encountered. In other words, all of us have places in our life that when we are there God seem close, a place where God seems easier to connect with, a place where it seems easier to experience God’s presence, a place like Jacob’s place where we encounter the active presence of God bridging the gap between heaven and earth. My other thought this morning comes from the Gospel (Matt. 9:18-26). In the first reading Jacob’s response, at least at first is conditional. Jacob is willing believe, he is willing to have faith, if God does several things for him on his journey. We find a different kind of faith in the Gospel. Both the official and the woman have unconditional faith, no strings attached. Even though his daughter is dead the official still searches out Jesus. He knows that even in death an encounter with Jesus can mean life. The woman who has struggled with health issues for many years just wants to touch Jesus’ clothing that simple action will make all the difference. These two faith filled people teach us the value, the gift of unconditional faith. They teach us that when we place our trust in God wonderful things, sometimes even impossible things happen! Today let us not pass up any opportunity to encounter a place, a person, an experience that will help us to know of God’s active presence in our life. Let us be people of unconditional faith so that as we journey through life there is always the possibility for wonderful if not impossible things to happen. Have a great Monday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: There is a short little saying that I often refer to – “Let go and let God.” For the longest time, I thought of this saying as flimsy, something you say when you can’t think of anything else to say. If you don’t know the answer, if you can’t explain something in human terms, if you can’t fix the problem – well then, just let go and let God!
However, as I have lived my life I am finding this short little phrase to be most helpful. Life throws a lot of unfixable problems at us. Life presents us with countless unexplainable situations. Life is rarely controllable and often beyond our expertise. Sometimes in the living of life all we can do is let go and let God! I believe that is what Jesus is getting at in our Gospel today (Matthew 11:25-30). A Passionist brother of mine often uses the phrase, “It is tough being the smartest person in the room.” He uses it many time after a meeting when he has had a number of people sitting around the table who think they are the smartest person in the room. Jesus tells us in the Gospel today that things are often hidden from the wise and learned. In other words, we can know a lot but that wisdom or knowledge sometimes is no match to the struggles, burdens, yokes of life. Often when confronting the realities of life that no one has an answer for that no one can fix our best chance, our only option is to let go and let God! We might think we know the answer, we might want to fix the problem but in the end turning it over to God is the best option. It is not an easy one because most of the time we want to be the smartest person in the room. We want to fix the problem. However, today Jesus invites us to bring our burdens, our yokes, no matter how heavy to him, the Father and the Spirit and we together will carry them. Perhaps not always to the outcome that we would most like, but we together will carry them! In other words. “Let go and Let God!” Have a blessed Sunday and don’t forget to give God a little time today! Today’s Thoughts: In today’s gospel Jesus presents himself to his disciples, and to us, as our bridegroom. Jesus says he desires to relate to them, and to us, as a bridegroom relates to a bride!
This is quite an invitation to intimacy and in thinking about it, one might feel a little uncomfortable. To be honest with you, I am much more comfortable focusing on what Jesus as savior, shepherd and friend -- our way, our truth our life. I am comfortable acknowledging Jesus as savior of humanity, and for saving me as part of the human race. But it is sometimes scary when Jesus reveals what he desires from us individually, that is, when he invites us to be with him in the most intimate human relationship, that of a bridegroom and bride. This invitation can seem overwhelming because intimacy ask so much more of us perhaps more than we want to give. But he is honest with us and his disciples. He asserts that he does not want us simply to “patch up” our former relationship with God -- patching up old cloth and old wineskins doesn’t work. Jesus invites us to a new relationship, new cloth, new wineskins. Can he really mean it? What do we do now? Can we accept the invitation? But what Jesus asks Jesus gives. We can only pray for the grace to remove our resistance and to allow Jesus to draw us into this spousal intimacy. Lord, teach us how to let you be our bridegroom and speak to us of peace! Have a great Saturday everyone. “Every human being desires communion and peace. Everyone needs peaceful co-existence. But this can grow only when we also build inner peace in our heart. Many people live in a constant hurry. In this way all that they have inside them tends to be overwhelmed. This also affects how we treat the environment. It is necessary to grant oneself more time to recover a serene harmony with the world, with creation, and also with the Creator. Let us try, in contemplation and prayer, to achieve ever greater familiarity with God. And gradually we will discover that the heavenly Father wants what is good for us. He wants to see us happy, full of joy and serene. It is this familiarity with God that also inspires our mercy. Just as the Father loves, so does His children. As He is merciful, we too are called upon to be merciful towards each other. Let us allow ourselves to be touched by God's mercy, also through a good confession, to become increasingly merciful like the Father." (Pope Francis)
Today’s Thoughts: Whenever I hear or read today’s Gospel (Matt. 9:9-13) I think of all those times when people, often times leaders, especially religious leaders, refuse to attend something, a graduation, dinner, fundraising event or some other gathering because a certain person is going to be there or be honored. Often the objection centers on an issue like abortion, contraception or some other political/faith issue. I am sure those who protest the presence of this person have good reasons; reasons often intensified by some others who believe it would bring scandal to attend.
Yet, Jesus often sat, talked, ate and was found in the company of public sinners and people at odds with the faith community. Situations that the religious leaders of his time thought were bringing scandal. Jesus’ statement to the Pharisees today seems to indicate that these are the very people he came to encounter and help. Why is that not the same today? Why are we not willing to be present to people who need help today? Do we not trust God’s presence? Do we not trust that people can change? Do we think that people cannot be affected by what we bring to a moment though faith? Must people always believe first before we are willing to talk to them or be in their presence? Do we really not value our own witness of faith? Jesus did not convert every person he met. He did not change the attitudes, the opinions or the actions of every person he encountered. Jesus simply was willing to listen, to share, to be present to and to treat all people as God’s children. He was willing to break bread, to share a meal and hope that through the encounter a person’s heart might change. I realize that none of us are Jesus, however if we are true disciple should we not humbly follow in his footsteps and trust in our faith, in our witness to the Gospel? Have a great Friday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: “When God is going to do something wonderful, [God] always starts with a hardship; when God is going to do something amazing, [God] starts with an impossibility.” (Anne Lamott, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith)
In some ways, I think both our readings today speak to Anne Lamott’s thoughts about God. The story of Abraham told by God to sacrifice his son Isaac, (Gen. 22: 1b-19) has always been an intriguing one. I was thinking this morning of all the parents I have encountered in my life and I would have to stay 99% of them would have found God’s request troubling if not impossible. But as Lamott says, if God is going to do something amazing and or wonderful God starts with hardship and the impossible. It was certainly a hardship for Abraham and maybe if you think about it from a parent’s perspective it was an impossibility. Yet, that is where God started and from Abraham’s faithfulness and trust something wonderful and amazing unfolded. We might look at the Gospel (Matt. 9:1-8) in the same way. Jesus seemly, at least for the scribes, starts with an impossibility, forgiving sins which lead to another impossibility the healing of a paralytic. Yet from these two seemly impossible actions the hardship of sinfulness and a physical disability are taken away, in other words something amazing and wonderful takes place. The key to both of our stories is faith and faithfulness, Abraham’s faith, the paralytic and his friends’ faith and God’s faithfulness. Perhaps as we journey, through this day all parents should give pause to look at their children and realize by having them God has tested your faithfulness, may the hardships and the impossibilities of watching them grow be the very faith and hopefulness of amazement and wonder. Have a great Thursday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: In the Gospel today, we learn that the saving power of God can at times be overwhelming, so much so that we might ask God to leave. Jesus frees the two Gadarenes who have been plagued by demons, yet when the town hears about this healing they ask Jesus to move on. I guess the saving power of God was a little too much for them!
Perhaps it can be a little too much for us at time also because often the saving power of God asks us to change, to live our life differently. We might say Jesus doesn’t heal and forgive and then expect life to go on as usual. Jesus’ saving power is life changing for those who received and for those who see it. Archbishop Oscar Romero puts it this way, “Those who want to bear the marks of the Spirit and the fire that baptizes with must take the risk of renouncing everything and seeking only God’s reign and justice.” In other words, if we wish to receive and encounter the saving power of God then we always need to seek good not just for ourselves but for others. Our focus, our commitment, must be about the love of God and it must be a lifelong focus and commitment! Our challenge today and always is to accept the grace of God in as much as humanly possible and be up to the difficulties, the struggles, the trials that might arrive. If we put all our efforts into responding properly to Christ’s presence in our lives life, great things will happen, the impossible will become possible! Have a great Wednesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Happy Fourth of July everyone! Many blessing on your holiday. I hope it will be a good one and that whatever you do today or wherever you go it will be a day of fun laughter, family, friends, peace and safety. Enjoy your holiday!
As for my thoughts today, in our Gospel, we have the familiar story of Jesus calming the storm. The storm is a place where we all have been; those times when things are going along just fine and then something happens, the winds and storm clouds of life overwhelm us. Sure, there are always a few bumps in the road but that is to be expected in the living of life but we have got things under control. As I said above, then it happens, all hell breaks loose and we are hanging on for dear life. All our planning, all our preparations, all our good intentions seem to go right out the window. We are now hanging on by our finger tips any moment life will come crashing down on us. We followed our plan. We did all the right things. Why is this happening to us? Our life is simply out of control and we are doomed! “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?” Why are we terrified? Have we lost faith? Have we lost faith in God, faith in others, faith in ourselves? Have we forgotten all the hard work we have put into life? Are we unwilling to trust ourselves any more just because a storm has entered our life? Are we really that fragile? Have we forgotten to trust who has brought us to this moment? Storms in life are fearful moments. They seem to take control away from us, if we really ever had it. They bring to the surface all kinds of doubt from the dark reaches of our hearts. They scare us and sometimes make us think the worst. They take us out of our comfort zone. Yet, we are reminded today that no matter what, we never face the storms of life alone. Paraphrasing the words of Thomas Merton’s famous prayer, “We should not fear because God is always with us and will never leave us to face our storms alone.” On this Fourth of July wherever we find ourselves, whether we find ourselves in the midst of a calm day, or looking at a horizon full of storm clouds or right in the middle of an all-out storm, let us have faith in God, faith in those important in our life and faith in ourselves so that no matter what this day brings our faith will see us through. Have a great Tuesday everyone and a happy Fourth of July, please be safe! Today’s Thoughts: I have always felt that over the centuries, St. Thomas the Apostle has gotten a bad rap. If we look at the Gospel stories especially those situated around the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus it seems that everyone doubts and everyone needs to see, taste, touch, hear or smell Jesus before they believe!
Perhaps St. John includes this little story about Thomas just to remind us that everyone doubts and everyone need the sacramental experience of Jesus to keep us going on the right path. In celebrating St. Thomas today, we are reminded that there is no cheap grace. Faith is a struggle, doubt is around every corner, with reason to wonder and question often making an appearance. We only prevail; we only remain faithful because of grace, grace that was born out of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ. It is not cheap grace but grace grounded in the marks of struggle and love. I have a favorite quote by Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ that I visit often; “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.” Perhaps our story of Thomas today reminds us of what we all want to discover and when we touch, taste, smell, see or hear it we too can say, “My Lord and my God!” Today let us not be unbelieving but by the grace of God let us believe! 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
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