Today’s Thoughts: “God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy.” (Pope Francis) These words from Pope Francis come to mind as I consider the Gospel for today (Matt. 18:21 – 19:1). Peter wants to how many times he must forgive a brother who has sin against him and Jesus’ answer is always. God never tires of forgiving us so why should we tire of forgiving our sisters and brothers.
This is not easy our human nature seems to always push us in the direction of not forgiving. We think we will feel better if we can extract our pound of flesh, if we can get back at the person, if we can inflict an equal amount of pain and suffering. Yet time and time again it doesn’t work, it doesn’t satisfy and often we feel even worse. Even though we don’t understand it God’s way is better. Mercy, forgiveness, joy and love are the essentials elements of a satisfying life. They help us to not get stuck but to move on so that we can enjoy all the moments of our life. Remember God never tires of forgiving us. Have a blessed, holy, and healthy Thursday everyone!
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Today’s Thoughts: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matt. 18:20) Perhaps said a little differently by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Where a people prays, there is the church; and where the church is; there is never loneliness.”
The focus of the Gospel today is church. It is a community gathered in God’s presence. In that presence, we can seek help, we can deal with struggles, we can get to the truth. In that presence, we can morn and celebrate. In that presence, we are never alone. While some might hear the word church and think building or institution, church is really people, Church is community. Church is the presence of God made visible by the gathering of two or three in God’s name! Have a blessed, holy, and healthy Wednesday everyone. Today’s Thoughts: “A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, and must empty ourselves. Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in his love than in your weakness.”
(St. Teresa of Calcutta) Today is the Feast of St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr, a Third Century saint. It is because of his feast that we have deviated from the daily readings from the Old Testament and Matthew’s Gospel. And I have called upon Mother Teresa again to give us a little focus. It is my feeling that St. Teresa of Calcutta gives us another way of understanding our Gospel (John 12:24-26) today. The cost, the struggle, the giving of ourselves might seem like weakness but when lived in friendship with God it becomes the power of wonderful things. Let us believe in God’s love so that our weakness will become our strength! Have a blessed, holy, and healthy Monday everyone. 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 blessed, holy, and healthy Monday everyone! 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: Faith is the focus of our readings today. In the first reading from 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. 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 blessed, holy, and healthy Saturday 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 76 years ago an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese town of Hiroshima and three days later another one was dropped on Nagasaki. We live today in the hope that Jesus’ transfiguration will always remind us that, despite our human tendency toward acts of violence, hate, disrespect, racism, 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, violence and hate in our world. Have a blessed, holy, and healthy Friday everyone. Today’s Thoughts: In our first reading for the Book of Numbers, the Israelites are unwilling to trust God and pay a rather high price for their rebelliousness. Even Moses and Aaron get caught in this miss adventure. They were unwilling to hear the voice of the Lord and they let their hearts become hardened. Hearts that became a place where God could not get in.
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 blessed, holy and healthy 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.” (St. Teresa of Calcutta, MC)
The Canaanite woman in our 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 blessed, holy, and healthy Wednesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Today’s Thoughts: If you have ever made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land chances are that 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 reflection 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 as the Good Shepherd he comes to them during 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 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 amid a calm boat we might ask ourselves – If we had been there in the storm, would Jesus have directed his words to us? "Oh, 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 amid 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 during 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 blessed, holy. and healthy Tuesday 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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