Today’s Thoughts: “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? Here I am, send me!” In today first reading we have the call of Isaiah the prophet and the all too familiar words, “Here I am!” Isaiah’s vision enlivened his spirit and strengthened his faith to the point of accepting God’s call to serve. He sensed his own sinfulness but also realized God’s presence in his life.
Isaiah embraced the spirit of Jesus’ words in the Gospel this morning that he was important to God. God knew everything about him, all the hairs on his head. Isaiah knew that God valued him far more than a couple of sparrows. With this understanding, with this knowledge of God Isaiah was able to move forward, to volunteer for the journey of a life time. Perhaps the challenge of our scriptures today is to look at our own life, to acknowledge our own sinfulness but to trust in the presence, the care and the love of God and move forward, to volunteer for the journey of a life time with God. Yes, there is an evil one lurking out there ready to calm our body and soul but we must trust in God’s care, concern and love to guide us through the challenges and the struggles that come our way. We need to trust that we, like Isaiah, are important to God. As we journey through this day let is ask God for the strength to believe more deeply in God’s love for us so that we can live more peacefully in God’s presence around us! Have a blessed, holy, safe, and healthy Saturday everyone!
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Today’s Thoughts: “For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (Matthew 10:20). There is great comfort in these words from the Gospel today especially for someone like me, a preacher. However, they are words that are also demanding. They demand dependence not independence. They demand dependence on God, a willingness to let go and let God.
Now before I go any further with my reflection I would just like to say something about this phrase “let go and let God.” I know I use it often and at times people have commented that they don’t quite understand it. When I use the phrase “let go and let God” what I am referring to is the human condition known as being in control. We all like to be in control, to call the shots. We all like to have a sense that we have got things covered, that we know best. However, if we pay close attention to Jesus in the Gospel we are reminded time and time again that it is about God not about us. Jesus often asks the disciples to trust, to not depend on themselves but the presence of God in their lives. This was not easy, and the disciples often fail. It was when they were able to let go of their way and trust in God that they found themselves on the right path. Letting go and letting God simply means that life is not about “me” it is about God. It is about letting go of the enticements of the world and letting God be present to us as we journey through life. This theme of trust, of letting go has been an ongoing theme in our Gospels this week. We have been told of the great power that the disciples have been given to proclaim the Kingdom of God in the Gospel. And we have been directed in many ways through the responsorial psalm that our focus in life should always be God. Thomas Merton wrote, “You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.” Jesus remind us today of the same thing. It is through the courage of our friendship with God that we will always be able to bring the Kingdom of God to each moment of life. So, as we make our way through this day let us have the courage to let go and let God because we trust in God’s unrelenting love for us, a love that impels us to proclaim the Kingdom of God because the Spirit of God speaks through us! Have a blessed, holy, safe, and healthy Friday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: I had two thoughts after spending some time this morning with our readings for today. The first was that of God’s unconditional, unrelenting love. In the first reading from Hosea, God knows that the Israelites are not faithful and that they have chosen to buy into the culture around them. However, God is not going to give up on them. God is going to remain faith.
My second thought is that Jesus is also teaching his disciples about God’s unconditional and unrelenting love but in a different way. Jesus sends the disciples out to proclaim the Kingdom of God giving them great powers but also asking them to be dependent. They are not to take what a usual traveler should take. They are to be dependent on the people and place that they go. They are to let God take care of the problems that they may face. Jesus asks his disciple to depend on God in their ministry. Our two readings remind us that God is in this journey of life for the long haul. God will be with us through the journey and if we are faithful God will take care of the struggles, not always in our time but in God’s time. All we have to do is trust in the presence and love of God. If we do this our presence life will give way to the fullness of a life that will never end! The Kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe in the Gospel! Have a blessed, holy, safe, and healthy Thursday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: “A [person] knows when he [or she] has found his [or her] vocation when he [or she] stops thinking about how to live and begins to live.” (Thomas Merton) I think this is a good quote for our Gospel reading today. The 12 apostles (Matt. 10:1-7) begin to live today and in doing so they find out what God has in store for them.
Isn’t this true for all of us? In living we uncover, we find, we experience, we become who God calls us to be. A verse from John’s Gospel came to mind as I reflected upon today’s Gospel, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last” (John 15:16). The twelve were chosen by Jesus and in the Gospel today they take their first steps in living out that call, they bring the gift of God to the people that they encounter. The challenge today for us is – Are we living out our call? And what gifts are we offering the world today? Have a blessed, holy, safe, and healthy Wednesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: I have a couple of thoughts about our readings today. First of all, at times we might think our Church, or our world is in the same state that Hosea sees Israel in, in our first readings today. Israel has turned away from God. they are caught up in the things of the world. They have their own idols, but at Hosea points out to them these idols will lead to destruction not life. They will lead Israel back to slavery not freedom.
Perhaps, we can say the same thing about the present moment. We have our own idols, money, power, things. We in many ways have bought into the world and forgotten about God which ultimately will lead to destruction not life. Secondly, 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. How these people going to make it?” He wonders. His heart goes out to them! On the plus side, Jesus 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. Yes, there are a lot of things wrong however a harvest of faith, hope and love is right in front of us and it is our responsibility to bring that harvest in. We are in this journey of life 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 blessed, holy, safe, and healthy Tuesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: The verse from the responsorial psalm seems to capture the essence of our readings today, “The Lord is gracious and merciful.”
In our first reading from Hosea (Hosea 2:16, 17C-18, 21-22) God is imaged as a devoted, caring, and loving husband. One that cannot eliminate our problems, but who is always with us, never leaving us to face the struggles and difficulties of life alone. In the Gospel, (Matt. 9:18-26), we witness God’s graciousness and mercy through Jesus. It is a graciousness and mercy that comes about because of the faith of two people, the official and the woman. Both the official and the woman have unconditional faith, unrelenting faith. 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, unrelenting faith. They teach us that when we place our trust in God wonderful things, sometimes even impossible things happen, both encounter God’s graciousness and mercy! Today we are challenged 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, to know God’s graciousness and mercy, to know God’s loving presence. Let us be people of unconditional, unrelenting faith so that as we journey through life there is always the possibility for wonderful if not impossible things to happen. Have a blessed, holy, safe, and healthy 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, holy, safe, and healthy Sunday and don’t forget to give God a little time today! Today’s Thoughts: Happy 4th of July everyone!
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 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 Jesus 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 blessed, holy, safe, and healthy Saturday and Fourth of July everyone. 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 blessed, holy, safe, and healthy 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. In our first reading Amos faces the struggle and hardship of all prophets, not being accepted. He faces banishment and probably death. But Amos stands his ground after all this is not about him. He was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores and he was fine with this simple life. No this is not about Amos, this is about God and his relationship with Israel. Amos’ parting words for Amaziah are not so merciful! But as Lamott says, if God is going to do something amazing God starts with hardship and the impossible. It was certainly a hardship and maybe even an impossible task for Amos. But, then God stepped in and the tables turned. 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 leads 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, Amos’ faith, the paralytic and his friends’ faith and God’s faithfulness. Perhaps was we journey through this day we should give pause to look at the ways our faith is tested. May the hardships and the impossibilities of our journey through life be by the grace and mercy of God turned into the very faith and hopefulness that heals, forgives and proclaims God’s presence in the world. Have a blessed, holy, safe, and healthy Thursday 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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