Today’s Thoughts: Throughout the scriptures Jesus often uses the image of master and servant to make a point and describe our relationship with God. In most cases God is the master and we are the servants and the relationship is as any master and servant relationship would be in Jesus’ world.
However, in today’s Gospel (Luke 12: 35-38) the relationship between master and servant between God and us is turned upside down. God does the waiting on us today and this profound reversal of roles is the very spirit of the Gospel message. It is the very spirit of what Pope Francis has challenged his cardinals, bishops and priest to be as ministers, the very essence of what he has challenged us to be as Christians. If we look at our relationship with God, we come to know that God not only loves us and cares for us but in the person of Jesus God has taken on our human nature in order to redeem us. Many of those who listened to Jesus’ preaching probably found his image of God as one who serves difficult if not impossible to accept. Masters of that time or anytime for that matter just are not seen or experienced as people who are willing to serve. Yet, for Jesus that is exactly what God has done in sending his own Son into the world. To continue this gift, we are asked to be servers of God’s grace to the world, a grace, as St. Paul puts it in the first reading to the Roman, a grace that is overflowing even in the midst of sin. A question for today might be how do we make God presence known through service to others? How do we let God’s grace overflow though us? Have a great Tuesday everyone.
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Today’s Thoughts: We often think when we hear stories like the one about the “Rich Fool” in today’s Gospel (Luke 12: 13-21) that Jesus doesn’t like those who are rich and that is not true. When Jesus talks about wealth, possessions, status and power it is not to condemn them but merely to challenge all who find themselves in possession of them. Jesus wants to know what we are going to do with what we possess. Do we use wealth, possessions, status and power to make ourselves comfortable or do we use them to help others? What we do with what we have is always the question.
As Jesus points out today, we cannot take it with us. As a friend of mine always says, “You never see a U-Haul behind a hearse!" In other words, you cannot take it with you so what are you going to do with it? Pope Francis is constantly challenging us to care about the poor, the needy, the less fortunate, the immigrants and the struggling. This challenge is nothing new it has been part of our faith from the beginning. Care and concern for the poor flows out of the Gospel. It is the same message that Jesus presents today. In the early Church the question of those in need was always part of the Church's focus. Pope Francis is just reminding us of what Jesus has said all along. As Passionists, St. Paul of the Cross wanted us to be called “The Poor of Jesus.” He wanted us to seek out all those struggling in in the Passion of Jesus. Our Rule, our Constitutions of Life, talk about our option for the poor. They should be our first concern, especially those who encounter the Passion of Jesus in their life today. Wealth, power, possessions and status are not evil. They are not counter to the Gospel; unless we fail to share, unless we only think of ourselves, unless we let injustice and poverty go unchallenged. Do we use the gifts, talents, possessions, wealth and power to make the world for all people a better place? In other words, by living our life are we rich in what matters to God? Have a great Monday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: In my homily yesterday afternoon and on The Sunday Mass this morning I spoke about a TV interview I saw a while ago between Steven Colbert and Christopher Cuomo. In the interview Mr. Colbert asked Mr. Cuomo about his catch phrase, “Get after it!” or “Let’s get after it.” Mr. Cuomo talked about it as his way of living life. In this profession he needs to be aggressive, assertive, persistent, but also responsible, decent and respectful. It is not easy to balance all these things, but he tries.
Mr. Cuomo’s catch phrase stayed with me and when I encountered today’s readings it seemed to fit. For me the readings seem to be asking us, in different ways, to “Get after it.” The widow in our Gospel is getting after it! Moses, along with Aaron and Hur are getting after it! And St. Paul is telling his friend Timothy that as leader he needs to get after it! Jesus is reminding us that prayer is important in our journey of faith and if we get after it with persistence, assertiveness, responsibility and respect good things will happen. Sometimes it is good to have help as Moses finds out in our first reading and as St. Paul tells Timothy the Sacred Scriptures are a good place for help, inspiration and wisdom. Yes, our challenge today as people of faith, as a community of faith called Church is to get after it with persistence and respect. Have a blessed and holy Sunday everyone and may the Passion of Jesus Christ be always in your heart! And remember to give God a little time today. Today’s Thoughts: Today’s Gospel passage just might leave one stumped. What does Jesus mean by the unforgivable sin, the sin against the Holy Spirit? What specifically would it be?
Here the Scriptures and Church teaching seem to be on a collision course. The Catechism assures us God’s mercy overcomes even the gravest evil, when there is sincere contrition. The power of God is a mighty force, that can go many places and accomplish amazing things. However, the one thing that can stop God’s power dead in its tracks, time and time again, is the hardness of the human heart. Because God will not force himself on us. But we have a wily God who knows how to find a way. Just look at our first reading from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans. St. Paul speaks about how God has found a way into Abraham’s heart through faith and love. Yes, we can cut ourselves off from God. We can harden our hearts. We can speak against the Holy Spirit. But we also have the hope that God will find a way to turn that hard heart into a human heart and turn our blasphemes into faith! Have a great Saturday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: We celebrate the feast of St. Luke, the Evangelist and companion of St. Paul today. In the first reading, (2 Timothy 4:10-17b), we are reminded that St. Paul was not always successful in his relationships. Two of his companions leave him but one, Luke, remains. When St. Paul was challenged in his ministry and he was challenged often, I am sure that he wished that there were more friends there to help him. But the Lord always stood by St. Paul and provided him with the strength necessary to push on.
From this story in St. Paul’s Letter to Timothy and others like it we can be graced with the hope that in our journey of faith our support, like St. Paul’s, comes from God in many different ways. God is always with us and will never leave us to face our perils alone. And like Luke for Paul, friends and family who stand by us, even when others forget us, are special gifts. Perhaps today on this Feast of St. Luke, Evangelist and faithful friend we might give thanks for the faithful friends in our own lives. Thanking God for them and the gifts that they are to us! Have a great Friday everyone. Today’s Thoughts: “Woe to you, scholars of the law! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter and you stopped those trying to enter.” Strong and challenging words of Jesus in today’s Gospel. I wonder how many religious leaders, scholars of the law or leaders in general will paused when they hear these words proclaimed or when they proclaim them themselves during mass today? At the very least these words from Jesus should be food for thought.
The readings today urge us to consider our faith, our relationship with God as the lens through which we view life and make decisions. We certainly need to respect the law but our readings today challenge the laws that do not promote love, acceptance of and advancement of people even people we disagree with. We are asked as people of faith to promote love, forgiveness and respect of all God’s people. Perhaps a few questions we might ask are – Over the course of history what has God done for us? And today what does God want me to do, what does God want us to do when opting for a direction or making a decision in life? Have a great Thursday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Our readings today (Romans 2:1-11 and Luke 11:42-46) focus on the judging others. We are challenged by our scriptures today to not be judges but to be people invested in God.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer speaks to Paul and Jesus’ message today with his own reflection. “Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.” Love and grace of gifts of the Spirit and they help us not to be blind judges but to be people of generosity, kindness, joy, peace and faithfulness. As does Henri Nouwen with his words; “As long as we continue to live as if we are what we do, what we have, and what other people think about us, we will remain filled with judgments, opinions, evaluations, and condemnations. We will remain addicted to putting people and things in their "right" place.” In other words, we will place burdens on others and certainly not be people of the Spirit. The question that we might ask ourselves today is do we want to be blind, addicted, hypocrites? Hopefully not – which means we need to remember let God be the judge and every time we are tempted to point out another’s fault, we should think of our own shortcomings. If we approach life this way we will be graced by God’s mercy and patience, we will be living in the Spirit! Have a great Wednesday everyone. Today’s Thoughts: As we have often heard, “You cannot judge a book by its cover!” We might say that this saying reflects what Jesus is talking about in the Gospel (Luke 11: 37-41) today. Jesus speaks about the outside of the Pharisees verses the inside. What they appear to be, what people see verses what they really do and think.
Jesus is speaking to the challenge of finding balance in life. Our life is not just about appearance it is about what we believe and how we live that belief each day. Living a life of faith begins in our hearts and our actions need to reflect what is in our hearts. St. Paul in his Letter to the Galatians is speaking about balance. Balance between the law and the spirit. Balance between what is learned, what guides us and what we believe. Being out of balance places us at risk. Being in balance opens the gift of God’s love. The Pharisees were not bad people however at times they let their power, their position, their influence and their authority get the best of them. They forgot who and what was at the center of their life. They forgot the purpose and meaning of their life. They put themselves first. They got out of balance. It can happen to anyone, it can happen to us. Being in balance is important. We need to always remember that everything, outside and inside comes from God. As Pope Emeritus Benedict put it, “Every form of gift is, in a word, a sign of the presence of God, because it leads to the fundamental discovery that, at the origin, everything is given.” Have a great Tuesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Sometime the signs God gives us come from people and experiences we least expect. This little sentence might best sum up the Gospel (Luke 11: 29-32) today. Often, we are looking for the great or the grand or the unusual when it comes to God. We want unbelievable miracles. Yet all around us God is speaking and often God can be found in unexpected places and heard through unexpected people.
Jonah himself did not think the people of Nineveh would get it but they did. The queen of Ethiopia, the Queen of Africa did not believe in Solomon’s God, but she came and could see and hear God’s wisdom in Solomon. It often has been said that, God works in mysterious ways and throughout scripture we are reminded of God’s mysterious ways! The challenge for us is to not box God in, to not predict God’s intentions. We need to listen, to look around us and be ready to see, hear and experiences the presence of God in our lives. We cannot write-off people or experience because we never know when we will find God through them. The signs of Jonah and the queen of the south are all around us. We need to be ready, willing and open to see and hear them! Have a great Monday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: “If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.” (Meister Eckhart) This saying by the great Dominican mystic seems to sum up our readings today. In the first reading from the Second Book of Kings and our Gospel from Luke reveal to us two story of thankfulness and gratitude.
Naaman, commander of the army of Syria, is thankful to the God of Israel for his healing and the Samaritan leper is thankful to Jesus. They both recognize the gift that they have been given and return to express their thankfulness and gratitude. Thankfulness, gratitude is an essential part of discipleship, an essential part of our friendship with God. Like Naaman and the Samaritan leper we are challenged to recognize that all that we have is a gift and we are entitled to none of it. Our life itself is a gift, a blessing and to be true disciples, to be true friends of God our stance in life needs to be one of thankfulness and gratitude. Perhaps we have an opportunity today to pause in the midst of our Sunday and just look around at life, our life and recognize God’s presence, and God’s gifts and like Naaman and the Samaritan say “Thanks!” Have a blessing Sunday everyone and don’t forget to give God and little time and your gratitude. |
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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