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 blessed, holy, safe, and healthy Monday everyone!
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Today’s Thoughts: In the Gospel today, Jesus again directs “an in your face” parable to the religious leaders. Last week we had another parable of indictment against the same leadership as well. The image in our parable today is that of a king who has prepared a wedding banquet for his son. The servants, (who are the prophets within the history of God’s relationship with Israel) are sent by the king to bring in the invited guests. However, the servants are met with disinterest invited guests who refuse to come and continue their everyday lives. A second time the servants are sent and this time they are mistreat and kill. Prophets in Israel did not have an easy time of it.
The king, in anger, destroys those who had refused the invitations and instead, sent his servants out into the kingdom, into the common areas, streets and alleys to invite the “bad and the good alike.” There are plenty of them around, because the hall was full. There is a strange end to this parable at least for me. The king finds one person attending the banquet who is not dressed properly. The king has this person bound and thrown out “into the darkness outside where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” As I always say if someone in Jesus’ parable is outside at the end you do not want to be that person. A question is why such selective brutality? The “wedding garment” is the issue. I often think of Sunday Mass when I read this parable. Today, unlike when I grew up, there seems to be no unwritten desk code. Wear whatever you want, shorts, t-shirts, flip-flops anything goes. Come late leave early, no problem. We cannot say anything because we just have to be glad they are there. When I was a kid, living in a steel town people came dressed up to Sunday Mass. I often think of this when I hear all the hullabaloo about the National Anthem but that is another conversation. What is the “wedding garment” in Matthew’s Gospel. Well, some experts in scripture write that it is the image of Baptism, proper incorporation into the “hall” or community. Others write that the “wedding garment” is how the invitation has changed the called-person. Perhaps all the other invitees were honor to be invited, they saw the honor and importance of being there and this lone invitee just sat there eating and drinking, not seeing the significance and importance of the event. Maybe he was not acting as invited, but he was acting entitled. Perhaps he had forgotten that there was more than food and drink provided. Maybe he was wearing a t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops! The religious leaders knew that Jesus was telling them that they had been invited and refused to come. That Jesus was an invitation to change, because of the relationship to which they had always been invited and they didn’t want in. Jesus was telling them that they were getting tossed out, not because they were not baptized, but that they refused to let Jesus into their life, because He was different from what they expected or demanded. When Jesus this parable comes around I always think about the movie The American President. In the climax of the movie President Shepherd gives an impassioned speech to the press during which he says, “America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad.” I believe that Jesus in his parables and at other times is saying, “Discipleship, citizenship in the Kingdom isn’t easy. The Kingdom of God is advanced discipleship, advanced citizenship and you have got to want it bad! There is not half way in faith! Have a blessed, holy, safe, and healthy Sunday everyone and don’t forget to give a little time to God! Today’s Thoughts: Today we have a very brief, two-line Gospel. One in which we hear a woman call to Jesus, “Blessed is the womb that carried you and the breasts at which you nursed.” But Jesus’ responds, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”
I think in our Gospel today Jesus is suggesting that we change our focus. That we look at life through a different lens. He is not discounting his own mother and their close relationship, for Jesus family is more than biology, more than DNA, family is hearing the Word of God and living it. Jesus is telling us that our own relationship with God can be blessed if we use God’s word as a lens through which we look at and then live life. In today’s Gospel we are invited to be family with others beyond our immediate family relationships. We are to include others because we have been included by Jesus. As we have encounters over the last six plus years with Pope Francis, he is a person who has heard the word of God and who lives it. He finds Jesus in the faces and lives of the poor and struggling in our world. And by his words and actions Pope Francis asks us to open our hearts to the hungry, the poor and the marginalized. He asks us to open our hearts to those struggling in the world because they are family. We are called be the Word of God to reach out to others who are in need as a way to really be united to Jesus and his mission. What does Jesus want from us? Jesus wants a family. Jesus wants a friendship. Jesus isn’t looking for us to read more about him or discuss the theology of his ministry. Jesus longs for a close and personal friendship with us as we speak to him about our lives and lean on him for support in times of need. Blessed by his love, we hear the call to keep his word by loving as he has loved us, by being family to all. Jesus invites us today to reach out to those who need us. Pope Francis calls us repeatedly to be a society, a church, a family of inclusion, dialog and service for all. Have a blessed, holy, safe, and healthy Saturday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: I have always struggled with this passage in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 11:15-26). If Jesus is taking the time to case out demons, why are people upset? Why are they casting a negative light on Jesus and his ministry? You would think that they would be pleased. You would think that they would be open to all the help they can get!
Perhaps the reason for their negativity is that they have become accustom, even comfortable with these demons. How does the old saying go, “The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know!” Sometimes we become comfortable with the devils that make a home in us. We look at them and begin to rationalize our encounters with the devils of our life. “They are just small problems, personal things, they really don’t hurt anyone. – Everybody does it. Everybody is doing it.” Looking at it another way we might say that Beelzebul is the strong man who guards his palace. His possessions are hatred, anger, prejudice, greed, and injustice. Through them he tries to control the world. By ourselves, we are helpless against his power. But this parable is one of hope. It proclaims the gospel message. There is one stronger than Beelzebul who can overpower him and cast him out of our lives if we let him. Christ is our strength, who by his resurrection has defeated the power of evil. We are called to live each day in the faith that Christ can help us overcome our demons. If we do our heart becomes a place where no demons dwell only Christ. O Lord create in us a clean heart and a faithful spirit! Have a blessed, holy, safe, and healthy Friday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Today’s Gospel (Luke 11:5-13) encourages us to be persistent, to persevere, to pray, to stay connect with God because God is so eager to help us. As Jesus says if a reluctant friend can be persuaded to help, how much more will God be willing to help!
As Kathleen Norris puts it, “Prayer is not asking for what you think you want but asking to be changed in ways you can't imagine.” Or as St. Teresa of Calcutta puts it, “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.” Today we are asked to put ourselves in God’s hands and let God change us in ways that we cannot imagine. This does not mean that God will always give us whatever we ask but it does mean that God always hears our prayer! Have a blessed, holy, safe, and healthy Thursday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Our readings today provide us with much food for thought. In St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians we encounter the early struggles of the Church. Paul confronts Peter because he says one thing and does another. the early Church leadership acknowledges Paul’s vocation as Apostle to the Gentiles but when it comes time to be among that community the leadership, especially Peter, fears what other might think.
Sometimes in our lives we come to an understanding of God’s Word, we embrace the challenges of the Gospel but then we give in to others. We fear disapproval of our actions, the living out of our faith. You might say we give into peer pressure often in our life. St. Paul give us an example today of sticking with what we value especially when we have discerned that this is what God really wants of us. Living by faith is not easy and it will often leave us open to criticism and ridicule, but like St. Paul we must trust that God is walking with us on this journey. How do we come to this trust? Our Gospel today reminds us that it is through prayer. Simple prayer not complex prayer. Jesus did not create a profound, theologically complex prayer. His teaching of prayer to his disciples was a simple six-line prayer. Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test. (Luke 11:2-4) Nothing fancy, complex, or formal just a simple conversation, a simple asking for God’s presence in our life. A praise of God, a desire for God’s Kingdom, a need for God’s daily presence and bread, a forgiveness for our sins, because we are willing to forgive too, and a desire to not face the final test. In a way I like Luke’s version of the Our Father a little better than Matthew’s. It is simpler and more to the point of what I want to say to God each day. Often, we load up our days, our life, with all kinds of prayer yet whether it is Luke’s version or Matthew’s version all Jesus asks is one simple prayer to Our Father! Have a blessed, holy, safe, and healthy Wednesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Here we are once again beating up poor Martha. Is really what today Gospel is about? (Luke 10: 38-42) Is Martha really doing the wrong thing? I think not!
I have often felt that Martha has gotten a bad rap because of the way we have looked at this Gospel over the centuries. We seem to think that a person who is hardworking, hospitable and concerned about her guest is somehow less faithful, less holy than a person of formal prayer and that is just not true. Martha is a good and faithful person, her mistake in the Gospel today is that she focuses on someone else; she is concerned about what someone else is doing rather than focusing on what she is doing. If Martha had just done her work with joy, enthusiasm and unselfishness this story in Luke’s Gospel would have never taken place. Let us for a moment reverse the roles. Suppose Mary had come to Jesus to complain about Martha. “You know Jesus she is always working, always running around being hospitable. She should stop when you come into the house and sit and listen to you!” What would Jesus have said? My guess is that he says, “Mary, Mary, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Martha has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” You see each woman in the story chooses her journey. Choose what she does best and that becomes her better part. Martha is a worker, she does it well. Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, she listens, and she does it well. There will always be tension between action and contemplation, between ministry and prayer, between work and quiet time. But the challenge is to pick what is best for us at that moment. What is our better part at each moment or stage of our life? What will help us to recognize God? Martha and Mary remind us that there are many gifts and that each gift is important. We just need to recognize what is important for us and not be worried about what is important for others! Have a blessed, holy, safe, and healthy Tuesday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Who is our Neighbor? “The Samaritan lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him.” (Luke 10: 34) The scholar in our Gospel story today thought he was being clever. He asked questions to enhance his self-regard. Jesus told the Good Samaritan story so that the scholar could recognize the right answer himself. No country or religion or border defines our neighbor. When we look up from our daily struggle or busyness and take the time to stop, look and listen, the lives of others come into focus and compassion stirs. When we hurry to the other side of the road, indifference wins.
The Jesuit teacher and author John Kavanaugh, S.J., wrote in his book, Following Christ in a Consumer Society, that that we all inhabit a gospel that reveals who we are. In our society of capitalism, the reigning gospel measures worth by what we produce, consume, and possess. People without money, jobs, health, home, education, or status do not count for much. St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians today, warns us that a false gospel is a curse. To measure life solely this way can smother us in emptiness. The Good Samaritan was an outsider. He was familiar with insults: people moving away to avoid contact. No surprise that a person at home on the margins would notice a stranger sprawled in a ditch. Privilege, wealth, power, importance, anger, and fear had not compromised his vision. He was willing to stop, to look, and to listen. He was willing to act. Transformation often begins when we allow others into our life, when we are willing to allow the world around us to touch our life in real was. No wonder that the poor often open their doors to those in trouble, they are not afraid to let the world in. Up close, suffering and injustice become real. As our moral vision grows, the situation of those at a distance become visible. When children fleeing violence show up at our border, we must find ways to help. God says: you will find me in the poor. That road will lead us home. Perhaps a question we might ask ourselves today is, “If Jesus told this parable today, instead of the Samaritan, whom do you think he might describe as acting mercifully? Have a blessed, holy, safe, and healthy Monday everyone! Today’s Thoughts: Our readings today present to us an interesting challenge. At first glance we might say that our readings especially the first reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah and the Gospel selection from Matthew have not a lot to say to us. Isaiah is speaking to the Israelites of his time and Jesus is speaking to the religious leadership of his time and seeing the readings in this light is right. However, if we look beyond the historical and theological context of the readings. we might see what they have to say to us.
The passage from Isaiah gives us a good starting point. I have always liked this passage because Isaiah says, “My friend had a vineyard….” (Isaiah 5:1) Isaiah is speaking about God. He calls God his friend. Friendship with God holds a special place in my own spirituality. As a preacher, I enter my moments of preaching with the understanding that I like Isaiah am going to speak about my friend, I am going to share my friend, God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit with all who are willing to listen. Isaiah is speaking about his friend, Jesus in the Gospel is speaking about his Father. Yes, they are challenging their respective communities, leaderships to see life differently, but they are also challenging us at this moment in history. We see our faith as a collective journey by the community called Church with a collective responsibility, but faith also means an individual journey and personal responsibility. God, our friend, has created us and in creating us has given us many good gifts. The gifts of life, insight and inspiration; the gifts of hope and ambition; the gifts of loving others and being loved; the gifts of sharing life and participating in life with others; the gifts of prayer, Eucharist, and contemplative silence; the gifts of strength and conviction to preserve goodness in ourselves and others. God, our friend, has showered us with all these gifts and more each according to our own ability. The question our readings pose to us today is what do we do with them? Do we invest them? Do we work at making our vineyard the best it can be? Do we take care of God’s gifts? Or do we lazily sit back and allow weeds to grow? Do we neglect God’s gifts to the point of our vineyard producing nothing? Our readings today challenge us to recognize the dignity of our gifts, the beauty of life and our lives, the joy that has been planted in family, others and ourselves. We are asked to live our gifts to the best of our abilities. In other words, we are asked to produce good fruit. How can we live this challenge by following St. Paul’s advice to the Philippians that we hear in our second reading, “…be wholly directed to all that is true, all that deserves respect, all that is honest, pure, admirable, decent, virtuous, worthy of praise.” (Phil. 4:8) If we can care for the vineyard God, our friend, has planted within us as individuals and as Church, “Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:7) And most importantly God will welcome us into the Eternal Kingdom as a good and faithful friend! Have a blessed, holy, safe, and healthy Sunday everyone and don’t forget to give your Friend and little time today! Today’s Thoughts: In our Gospel this morning Jesus turns to the disciples in one of their private moments and says, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.” (Luke 10:24)
Perhaps the question we should ask ourselves today is, “What do we see and what do we hear as we walk through life?” As we walk to work and encounter a homeless person on the street do we see someone who is broken and needs our help or do we see someone who should just “stop drinking and get a job.” When we listen to the homily on Sunday and hear the call for action does it resonate with us; or do we say, “Let someone else in the parish take up that cross, I have way too much to do.” We are gifted each day with the opportunity to encounter God, perhaps not exactly like the disciples in the Gospel. Jesus is not standing physically right in front of us. However, in the living of life we have the opportunity to encounter, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the Father each and every moment of our life if we just take the time to listen and to see. If we just take the time to be open to the presence of God in our life! Have a blessed, holy, safe, and healthy Saturday 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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