Today’s Thoughts: “I discovered later, and I'm still discovering right up to this moment, that it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly in life's duties, problems, successes and failures. In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously, not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world. That, I think, is faith.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
The Gospel (Matt. 17:22-27) today for the most part is a confusing one, yet I think Bonhoeffer’s reflection on a life of faith touches the spirit of today’s Gospel. We are not exempt from life; it is part of who we are. Life asks us to participate and it is by faith in God that we find the way to participate, to live in this world. Have a great Monday everyone!
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Today’s Thoughts: “Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” (St. Francis of Assisi) These words from St. Francis seem to sit at the center of our readings today.
In our first reading from the First Book of Kings we encounter a moment in the struggles of Elijah the prophet. Once Elijah starts doing what is necessary and possible in his life he finds himself engaged in impossible. In our Gospel from John, Jesus reminds us to do what is necessary and possible because if we do then what seems impossible will become the very substance of our life. Friends work at what is necessary and possible in your life so that God can lead you to the impossible. Have a great Sunday everyone and don’t forget to give God a little time today! Today’s Thoughts: A couple of things stand out for me in our readings today. In the Book of Deuteronomy (6:5) we hear – “Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” The journey of faith is about going all in. Faith is not halfway. Faith is not the minimum. Faith is our whole, heart, soul and strength.
Now this way of living life is not easy. I believe as human beings we are prone at times to do the minimum. What can we do to get by? What is the least we can do and still get into heaven? Take the commandment – Keep Holy the Lord’s Day. When that commandment was given to us it meant the whole day. Over the centuries we have reduced it and reduced it. Today, at times, some Catholics look to get to mass before the Gospel is read and hang around until communion begins. The minimum. However, I have never found that in print. Keeping the Lord’s Day Holy, Loving our Mother and Father, Loving God, and all the other commandments are about our whole heart, our whole soul and our whole strength as the Book of Deuteronomy tells us today. Faith is about going all in, loving with everything we have. In our Gospel today, we see what happens when we don’t apply the challenge of Deuteronomy. Jesus becomes exasperated with the people and his disciples because of their lack of faith. The disciples are still not all in. They are still hedging their bets with Jesus and thus they struggled driving out the demon from the young boy. Faith demands a commitment. We cannot be lukewarm, we cannot do just the minimum. Faith can be as small as a mustard seed, but we need to be all in with our whole heart, our whole soul and all of our strength. Have a great Saturday everyone. Today’s Thoughts: The disciples left behind rather normal lives, fishing, collecting taxes, among other things and they did it all in order to follow Jesus. As we here in Matthew’s Gospel today now comes the hard part. The kingdom that Jesus speaks about will not be established by might but by suffering and death. Jesus is not a political or military leader. His power is not to take things by force. His way is not the way of the world. It is to die to self. It is to let go of what the world think is important. It is to grab onto a relationship with God and not let go.
Following Jesus and dying to self, letting go, is not an easy task. The cross presents itself to us daily in many different ways. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer once put it “Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” So, we are called today and every day to find that place deep within each one of us, where God is calling us, through the paschal mystery, into a relationship of love – and it is that relationship that holds the promise of a joyful, rich, and never-ending life in the kingdom. Have a holy and blessed Friday everyone. Father Fagan walks into a pub in Donegal, and asks the first man he meets, "Do you want to go to heaven?"
The man said, "I do, Father." The priest said, "Then stand over there against the wall." Then the priest asked the second man, "Do you want to go to heaven?" "Certainly, Father," the man replied. "Then stand over there against the wall," said the priest. Then Father Fagan walked up to Murphy and asked, "Do you want to go to heaven?" Murphy said, "No, I don't Father." The priest said, "I don't believe this. You mean to tell me that when you die you don't want to go to heaven?" O'Toole said, "Oh, when I die, yes. I thought you were getting a group together to go right now." Smile... Today’s Thoughts: In or first reading for the Book of the Prophet Jerimiah, God says he will be in our hearts. He will not be external. He will not be pages in a book. He will not be rules to memorize. He will be an integral part of us. He will be our hearts. Meaning that God is an internal force. When God is in our hearts, we can ‘think’ like God. We will not have to learn how to know God or have to teach others. We will know God because he is in our hearts.
In our Gospel, we encounter what can happen when we let God into our heart. Who does Peter say that Jesus is? “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” When Peter lets Jesus into his heart, he recognizes Jesus’ divinity. However, as we discover later in our Gospel, Peter returns to his old way and begins to think like a human being again, not like God. He does want Jesus to suffer and die. He does not want his friend to talk in such a way, to go through that. He does not want to lose his friend. He is thinking like a human being with earthly limits, rather than thinking like God. Peter fails to see the bigger picture. When we see religion, church, faith as an external construct, as accidentals rather than essentials, we get caught up in earthly thinking, with inexplicable puzzles, and problems. When we accept that God is in our hearts, we see beyond our small little world, we see a much bigger picture. If we let God in our hearts, we can begin to think like God, to see like God and that can make all the difference! Have a great Thursday everyone. Today’s Thoughts: “Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.” (Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, MC)
The Canaanite woman in the Gospel (Matt. 15:21-28) today is a woman of prayer. She puts herself in the hands of God. She is at God’s disposition and she knows it. But she remains persistent, she hears God’s voice deep in her heart and because of her faith her daughter is healed. Will we have faith enough today to put ourselves in the hands of God? Will we have faith enough today to listen to God’s voice in our hearts? Will we have faith enough today to bring hope to those we love? Have a great Wednesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: If you have ever made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land chances are when you visited the Sea of Galilee you took a little boat trip out on to the sea with your group. During you voyage today’s Gospel story might have been read. Now I am guessing when you took your trip it was a beautiful sunny day and the waters were calm but the tour guide or perhaps the priest with you after reading today’s Gospel asked you to pause and think about being in the boat on a stormy sea. They might have asked you to put yourself into the story. What would your reaction be? How would you feel being tossed about in a stormy sea?
It is a stormy scene in today's Gospel and it might be worth taking some time to reflect on the personalities whom we find in today’s story. First, there is Jesus. He has left the disciple and taken some time to pray. Yet ever the Good Shepherd he comes to them in the midst of the storm by walking on the water. It's useless to quibble about what, why and how this walking was accomplished. It is just important to know that Jesus was watching over his sheep like any Good Shepherd. Our next character is Peter. As we learn throughout the Gospels, Peter is always the impulsive one, he wants to be with Jesus on the water. Is he testing Jesus? Does Peter’s ego get the best of him thus at this moment he wants to be special, he wants to do something miraculous? Who knows what going through Peter’s mind at this moment! What is important is that Peter finds out that he cannot do it alone. So, he asks Jesus for help – “Lord save me!” It is a lesson that we all must learn in times of crisis, we need to put our trust in God and God will save us, perhaps not exactly as we would like but in a way that will ultimately be best for us. Finally, we have the other disciples who must have just been holding on in the boat for dear life totally awe by what was happening. Imagine their reaction as the winds and waves suddenly stop and the boat became perfectly calm. What was the purpose of this moment in their journey with Jesus? Perhaps it was a moment of faith building. If so I think Jesus’ mission was accomplished because in the Gospel we hear, "Those who were in the boat showed him homage, saying, 'Truly, you are the Son of God.'" Now just like on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land standing in the midst of a calm boat we might ask ourselves – If we had been there in the storm, would Jesus' words have been directed at us? "O, you of little faith, why did you doubt?" Many of the disciples were fishermen by trade. They knew the sea. They knew its power. They probably had been in a boat before during a storm. Fear can cause even the best of us to doubt. We are asked today to trust in the presence of God in our lives even during life’s storms. Jesus is the Good Shepherd; he always comes to the rescue of those he loves. Why is it that we like the disciples often find it so difficult to trust that Jesus is with us even in the midst of the storms of our life? Let us have faith and trust today and always in the Good Shepherd, the Faithful Sea Captain – Jesus! Have a great Tuesday everyone. Today’s Thoughts: “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.” (Thomas Merton)
I used these words from Thomas Merton not long ago in another one of my daily reflections, but I thought they spoke to our scriptures today on this Feast of the Transfiguration. We might not know how or why but by God’s grace our lives can be transformed into something wonderful if we are willing to embrace this moment with courage, faith and hope. We also need to remember that on this day 71 years ago an atomic bomb was dropped and three days later another one was dropped. We live today in the hope that Jesus’ transfiguration will always remind us that, despite our human tendency toward acts of violence and death, our lives, the world, can be changed by God’s power to give new life! Blessings on this Feast of the Transfiguration to everyone and please pray for an end to all war and violence in our world. Have a great Monday everyone. Today’s Thoughts: There is a quote from Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. that I have always liked – “The future belongs to those who give the next generation reason for hope.” It came to mind today as I reflected on our Gospel reading.
In today’s Gospel from St. John we hear some familiar words of Jesus ― “I am the Bread of Life.” When we hear these words our thoughts go directly to the Eucharist and why shouldn’t they? After all we often refer to the Eucharist as the Bread of Life. As the celebrant prepares the gifts in the midst of mass he says, “Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the bread we offer you: fruit of the earth and work of human hands, it will become for us the bread of life.” While connecting Jesus’ words, “I am the Bread of Life” with the Eucharist is a no brainer I am going to ask you today to hear these words a little differently. I am asking you to hear them in light of Fr. Pierre’s quote that I began with. Jesus’ words to those gathered around him that day along the Sea of Galilee where words of hope. Once again people are looking for a sign but Jesus offers them something far more lasting he offers them hope. He offers them an ongoing source of strength, joy, hope and love. Jesus was and is a builder of hope. Always offering a foundation stone with which to build upon wherever he goes. Jesus celebrated the moment but with an eye on the future. Jesus always offered something more than signs he offered the reality of himself. Jesus throughout his life, ministry, passion, death and resurrection gave us and continues to give us reason to hope all we need to do is believe! Have a holy and blessed Sunday everyone and don’t forget to give God a little time today! |
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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